Deceased
by x thiefmachine
Summary: Yeah, I'm dead. My brother needs me, though. NOVEL SPOILER.


**If you don't know who 'Dream!Naru' really is, DO NOT READ.** It'll spoil your din-dins.

* * *

_Screech. _Flashing lights: my body froze. Thud. A deafening crunch. The snapping noises, made by my own bones, sickened me as I lay motionless on the pavement. Warmth trickled from my left arm: blood. Straining to turn my head, I regretted the effort at the sight of a compound fracture and the unnatural angle it bent my arm at. _It's getting colder here_.

Waves of nausea assaulted me as I tried sitting up. That hadn't been such a great idea. I sustained a few injuries in my torso, I guessed, as it felt like my ribs had splintered and punctured organs they ought to have protected. Heartbeat racing, lungs desperate for air, I realized I needed to calm down_. I might be alright, if I can calm down. The driver will help me, surely._

Tires squealed to a quick stop; the vehicle's door slammed. I heard the driver's heavy steps sound closer and closer. Consciousness drained from my being as my body was jostled around by the unknown person.

Forced movement strained my broken bones; my vision went dark. That person was not going to help me... They were just going to dispose of me. _Why?_ There was no more pain by the time my body sank into the icy water._ Don't watch, Noll._

Now, all those movies where people experience "whole life flashing before your eyes" moments- well, they were wrong. As I was severed from my body forever, I didn't visualize any of the times I laughed with my parents. The faces of my friends and would-be lovers didn't float to my mind's forefront, and memories of so many good times seemed too far gone to recall.

Wait. No, maybe the movies weren't all wrong. The darkness of the reservoir that enveloped me dissolved into a dazzling white~ _Ah, so this is death_. I heard a voice, a voice strikingly similar to mine: my twin's voice, calling my name in anguish. As if he had felt my pain, as if he was dying with me. Chances are, he very well could have felt it. My brother's a paranormal researcher, and a gifted one at that. I was a medium. People say twins have certain... connections to each other, and I guess those theories are true, especially if one of the twins happens to be clairvoyant.

My whole life, I'd been Noll's connection to the world. If not for me, I doubt he'd have been able to speak to people, even. For years, It was just Noll and I; we were shipped from orphanage to orphanage. Even before we realized we were 'special,' the other kids were afraid of us. I tried my hardest to make friends with them, but Noll was hopeless. With his bad attitude and knack for making weird things happen, he was a problem.

After the Davis family took us in, I made a serious effort to socialize my brother. Slowly but surely, he learned to tolerate people. Some were easy to accept: like Lin- the man the professor hired to train Noll and teach him to control his temper. My brother liked him instantly, though didn't show it. It had always been a problem of his- showing he can care. I was supposed to have continued helping him with that...

I couldn't pass on- not while Noll still had growing to do. I turned my back to the light, and became just another wandering spirit in a country that seemed chalk full of them. I'd spent years working as a medium, persuading people to pass on and leave the world behind, but in the end I turned out to be a hypocrite. But how could I help him? I was _dead_. I hoped he would come in contact with a medium, and maybe I could influence him using the medium. In his line of work, it seemed inevitable that I would meet him again.

I fell back farther from the light, and thought of nothing but my brother.

_I will find you, Noll. _Having no idea how to compose myself as a ghost, I closed my eyes and waited. If he came in contact with another medium, I'd know it. I'd be ready. Soft music played: the harmonies of human voices. Or maybe their minds? Well, I'd been a psychic in life- it made sense for me to be gifted in death, too. Regardless, I listened to the world, though I remained blind to it.

A sensation akin to falling asleep in the living world fell about me, and I dozed, waiting for a familiar voice to pull me back.

* * *

She woke me from my slumber. Soon after, I heard my brother's voice, too. He sounded same as always: cynical, bossy, and a bit stuck-up. I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but emptiness. She called him by name- _"Naru-chan_!" A heavily accented version of his nickname. Realization hit: he followed me to Japan... to find my body. "Mai," he called her.

Mai- a psychic. I could tell, just as spirits I'd once contacted could pinpoint me as a medium. Mai had potential, but couldn't sense me. I listened for her voice even when 'Naru' wasn't around. It was obvious the two of them had just met, and I understood she started working for him. My brother was investigating something at her school, and I tried to sense any potential spirit. None could be found. Another psychic came near my brother- "Hara Masako." She seemed trained and a competent medium, but Mai was certainly more my type.

Then it happened. Mai, was knocked unconscious, and we met. On a spiritual level, of course, but she most likely assumed it was a just a dream. She couldn't have been any older than sixteen, and was petite even for being so young. I brought my hand to the brunette's forehead, and she opened her eyes.

**Mai clutched her head- she probably had a wicked headache. No doubt she was unused to being knocked unconscious and speaking with spirits. For all I knew, I was her first encounter with a ghost, ever. It must have been difficult on the girl. She spoke to me, rambling on about a poltergeist.  
**

**I lowered the girl back down- _she should rest and not worry about the waking world._  
**

**"What's come over you? You're being so nice, Naru..." _She has no idea who or what I am_- _I'm always this nice_. _She thinks I'm Noll? _**

**The thought stung. Our whole lives, Noll and I existed as two halves of the same person. While I was the cheerful, social half, Noll was the cold, hard-working half._ Without me, it will seem to people that Noll is incapable of being warm._ My eyes didn't stray from Mai's relaxed form.  
**

**_ To this girl, I am Noll- Maybe I should give her a better impression of my brother, even if he can't... _I smiled at Mai. When I was alive, people loved to see me smile. They said it cheered them up, just being around me. So I did it all the time: I gave them big, goofy smiles, or warm, consoling ones. I perfected a smirk to rival my brother's. This girl had never seen Noll smile, and probably never would, so I decided to treat her. _If I'm going to be Noll, I will at least be a kinder one than he is._**

**Mai brightened, a beautiful, blissful look on her face, but soon began looking sleepy. "You should always smile like that..." **She faded from me; she could return to her consciousness. I could not.

I spoke aloud in my darkness, wishing somehow I could tell her, but knowing I never would.

"Nice to meet you, Mai. My name is Eugene, and I'm dead."

* * *

I don't own anything Ghost Hunt, and respectively borrowed phrases from 'Evil Spirits All Over?' to write from Gene's point of view, since we _ne-ver_ see things his way and I believe he would be a complex character if we could. If... that's okay? Because I don't know.

Either a oneshot or series of oneshots, I'm not sure. Other story= priority.

x. thief


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